South Korea, U.S. say North Korea must be ready to freeze nuclear program for talks
Updated: 2014-06-03 18:04:13 KST

South Korea and the United States agreed North Korea must not advance its nuclear capability if it seeks dialogue with them.
Following four hours of talks in Washington on Monday local time, South Korea's chief nuclear envoy Hwang Joon-kook and his U.S. counterpart Glyn Davies set a condition for the resumption of six-nation talks aimed at denuclearizing North Korea.

"On resuming denuclearization talks, we agreed it must be a meaningful dialogue that ensures actual progress and prevents further development of North Korea's nuclear capacity."
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The meeting comes a week after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi's visit to Seoul, where he called for a swift resumption of the six-party talks.
The multilateral denuclearization dialogue involving the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia has been stalled since December 2008.
Hwang said Seoul and Washington agreed North Korea's sincerity about denuclearization is the key precondition to resuming the six-party talks and they will seek close consultation with Beijing on the issue.
South Korea and the United States also called on Japan to maintain transparency in its discussions with North Korea.
Pyongyang agreed to allow a reinvestigation into the fate of Japanese citizens abducted by the North in the 1970s and '80s and Tokyo promised to lift some of its sanctions on the North.
Experts say dialogue between North Korea and Japan is key for solving the abduction issue but stress Tokyo must not stray away from its trilateral cooperation with Seoul and Washington in dealing with Pyongyang's nuclear program.
Hwang Sung-hee, Arirang News.